BED BUGS IN THE NEWS

BED BUG EPIDEMIC | BEDBUGS.

The bed bug epidemic that has swept the western world has received a lot of attention in the media. And its not just a ‘story’, the bed bug epidemic is very real and there are many theories on why the bed bugs has been advancing so prolificly in western countries since the mid-90’s.

Here are some of the most recent news of the bed bug epidemic:

BED BUG EPIDEMIC:

BED BUGS NEWS and HOTELS WITH BED BUGS.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES.

BED BUG EPIDEMIC IS EXPLODING IN THE US.

May 13, 2011. The United States is currently experiencing a nightmarish epidemic of disgusting blood sucking parasites. There is a full blown bed bug epidemic happening all across America and it just seems to get worse with each passing year. For cities such as New York and Philadelphia which are at the epicenter of the outbreak, bed bugs have become an important political issue. Once bed bugs become entrenched in an area, virtually everyone is thinking about them. Bed bugs will not kill you, but they can drive you insane. Anyone that has ever had big, red welts all over their bodies from bed bug bites knows how terribly frustrating bed bugs can be. They can be incredibly difficult to get rid of. So why am I talking about bed bugs when there are hundreds of other important economic issues to talk about right now? Well, this is just another example of how our country seems to be cursed. Even the simplest things seem to become major problems for us these days. The reality is that there were almost no bed bugs inside the U.S. between the end of World War II and the 1990s. But today the number of bed bugs is absolutely exploding. I remember when I was young my mother would tell me to “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”, but I didn’t even know what bed bugs were because I had never seen any. But today, CBS News says that more than 250 million dollars a year (and rising) is spent fighting bed bugs.

Things have gotten so bad that a “National Bed Bug Summit” was held earlier this year in Washington D.C.
Will we soon have a “war on bed bugs”?
I can just see it now: “You are either with us or you are with the bed bugs”.
So exactly what are bed bugs?
Well, basically bed bugs are small, brown, flat insects that love to suck the blood of animals and humans. They are commonly found in hospitals, businesses, homes, sofas, mattresses, buses, subways, trains, airplanes, classrooms, retail stores, movie theaters and especially in hotels.

As mentioned above, you will not die from bed bug bites. But many people have been driven absolutely crazy from constant bed bug bites for weeks or months on end.
One of the worst things about a bed bug infestation is all of the itching that bed bug bites cause. It can get to a point where it can be absolutely debilitating.
Some people become so traumatized by the fear of having bed bugs crawl all over them and bite them all night that they actually become afraid to go to sleep. A really bad bed bug infestation can cause panic attacks and even depression.
Right now there are large numbers of New Yorkers that are absolutely obsessed with bed bugs. The bed bug infestation in the city just seems to get worse and worse. The following is a quote from a local NBC news station in New York….
New statistics from the city’s Department of Housing, Preservation and Development reveal an epidemic: Manhattanites have been complaining about bed bugs at six times the rate they did in 2005. On Staten Island, the number of complaints has soared 32 times higher than it was five years ago.
Just because you have bed bugs does not mean that you are dirty or unsanitary. The truth is that some of the finest hotels in the country have bed bugs.
According to The New York Post, bed bugs have even infested the Metropolitan Opera House, the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the Empire State Building and the United Nations.
I once experienced a problem with bed bugs myself. Back when I was much younger and barely scraping by financially, I figured I would save a few bucks by buying a used mattress.
That was a huge mistake.
For weeks I would wake up with huge red bites all over my legs.
Never, ever again will I buy a used mattress.
Once bed bugs arrive in your home, they can be almost impossible to get rid of without professional help.
Throwing out one piece of furniture or covering your mattress in plastic might help a little bit but it will not solve the problem.
Some adult bed bugs can live for up to 12 months without feeding at all.
Just when you think they are gone they can come out and start feasting again.
Also, bed bugs are great at multiplying. Female bed bugs can lay up to 5 eggs in a single day and can lay up to 500 eggs during a lifetime.
Perhaps your area of the country does not have a problem with bed bugs yet, but this epidemic is spreading.

Perhaps you saw in the news recently that some scientists have found that bed bugs are now carrying a “superbug” known as MRSA.
Scientists in Vancouver, Canada say that for the first time ever they have found bed bugs that have methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The following is a quote from a recent CTV article about this discovery….
Researchers discovered that a sample of the blood-sucking insects taken from three patients who live in Vancouver’s gritty Downtown Eastside were carrying two types of drug-resistant bacteria.
Co-investigator Dr. Marc Romney, a medical microbiologist at nearby St. Paul’s Hospital, said five bedbugs plucked from the patients or their belongings were carrying MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) or VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococci). Dubbed superbugs, the bacteria are resistant to many standard antibiotics.
The good news is that these scientists do not have any evidence that bed bugs are spreading MRSA to humans.
Bed bugs are able to be infected by at least 28 different human pathogens, but at least to this point they are not very effective at spreading them.
Let us hope that does not change.
It turns out that MRSA has also been found in our supermarket meat.
For the first time in the United States, scientists have found antibiotic-resistant MRSA in supermarket meat.
According to Business Insider, “scientists at Wayne State University tested 289 raw meat samples from 30 Detroit grocery stores. Six of the samples were infected with the potentially deadly bacteria, including three chicken, two beef and one turkey.”
Yuck!
MRSA is not something you want to mess around with.
This is yet another example of how unsafe our food is becoming.
We like to think of ourselves as so advanced, but we can’t even protect ourselves from annoying little bed bugs and we can’t even keep very serious pathogens out of our food supply.
If you stop and think about all of the gross things in our society it can really stress you out. For example, the next time you use a soda fountain at a fast food restaurant there is a good chance that you may encounter fecal contamination. Just check out the following quote from Organic Health….
According to a study published in the January issue of the International Journal of Food Microbiology, nearly half of the 90 beverages from soda fountain machines in one area in Virginia tested positive for coliform bacteria – which could indicate possible fecal contamination.
But getting back to bed bugs, for those dealing with an infestation the number one thing they want to know is what to do about it.
Well, there was one very effective chemical known as “Propoxur”, but it has been banned by the EPA. It turns out that Propoxur “is a known human carcinogen” and is very dangerous to children.
Some are urging the EPA to reconsider this ban, but so far the EPA has been standing firm.
Meanwhile, the bed bugs continue to multiply and terrorize more Americans.
On one bed bug forum, one woman identified as “avenae” shared a particularly brutal bed bug horror story….
It all started in April, woke up one morning with a red welt on my leg. Never really thought much of it. Then it kept happening, so I thought I had fleas, treated my animals, checked the house for them. Never saw a single flea. Also no one else in my home was being affected. Then I thought maybe I was having an allergic reaction to a new soap I had bought so I stopped using that and nothing changed. Kept realizing I was waking up in the middle of the night scratching my body parts almost raw. The itch was so intense it felt like a million fire ants biting me all over. So I start researching, read up on bed bugs and searched my entire home….nothing. But I seem to be having a sever reaction to the bites.
Mind you I hadn’t traveled, had any visitors, nothing that would have brought these nasty little creatures into my home.
Ever night I wake up, every morning new red welts all over me. One night I thought I’d wear long pants and sock and a long sleeve shirt, only to wake up with bites all over my neck and face! STILL could not find a single bug. It got to the point were I was crying myself to sleep at night and taking sleeping pills just to be able to sleep. Didn’t want to start sleeping on the couch out of fear of them following me out.

BEDBUG MISERY SPREADS TO THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING.

AOlnews.

(Aug. 21) — Tourists flocking to the Empire State Building this weekend could find themselves encountering a whole other New York experience: bedbugs.
Staff at the iconic skyscraper discovered a minor infestation of the blood-sucking critters in the building’s basement, according to The New York Daily News. Exterminators were promptly called on.
“That makes me think they’re not cleaning when they should be,” Phalyn Kazmaerczak, 23, of Buffalo, N.Y., told the Daily News. “You would think that for $20 a ticket, it should not be infested with bugs.”
Bedbug infestations are a growing problem in New York City, with infestations rising fivefold in the 12 months to June, according to pest control company Assured Environments. Locations including a movie theater, a Victoria’s Secret lingerie store and clothes retailer Abercrombie & Fitch all reporting infestations this year.
The creatures bite into human flesh with two hollow prongs and feed on blood. After the insect has had its fill and scurried off, the bite will start to itch painfully and swell up.
The insects can hide in walls, clothes and even computers and go a whole year without eating, making them extremely difficult to eradicate.
“Like so many other buildings in New York City, the Empire State Building had a small incident of bedbugs,” the building said in a statement. “The occurrence was specific to a uniform storage area in the basement of the building. The area has been treated and fully cleared.”
It isn’t clear why bedbugs have become such a problem in New York, though it could be related to the large proportion of international travel through the city.
“They hitch rides in laptop bags, briefcases, suitcases,” Barry Beck, chief operating officer of Assured Environments, told AOL News in June. “People start seeing them and freak out,”
The city government recently allocated $500,000 to help fight the bugs.
But not all the costs are financial. People say that the stigma attached to having an infestation is on the rise.
Victims say that colleagues, clients and even friends and families have grown reluctant to enter a home or even have physical contact with a person after an infestation.
“They don’t want to hug you anymore; they don’t want you coming over,” Jeremy Sparig, of Brooklyn, told The New York Times. “You’re like a leper.”

QUESTIONS AND ANSWER session on bed bugs, on Dateline.

Dini M. Miller, Ph.D., an associate professor in Urban Pest Management at Virginia Tech’s Department of Entomology answered some of the questions viewers e-mailed Dateline after the report on bed bugs.

On preventing bites, hair Question: If you put on “Off” or some other insect repellant before retiring in a hotel will this prevent them from biting? Can they get in your hair? –Dolores Hill, Bessemer, Ala. Answer: Although we have not specifically tested mosquito repellants on bed bugs, we have tested repellant insecticides. Bed bugs do not seem to respond in the slightest to repellent insecticides. In fact, they will sit on top of them until they die. These results have been confirmed by the older bed bug literature (Usinger 1966) who stated that many repellant materials were applied to bed frames in an attempt to keep bed bugs from crawling up, but none had any effect. Because we have not tested repellants on skin, we can’t say for sure whether bed bugs would be willing to stick their mouth parts though repellant treated skin or not. But we have found bed bugs to be very determined little creatures and I think it would be hard to stop a hungry bed bug. In addition, the repellants that you buy for mosquitoes last only a couple of hours before the effects begin to wear off. If you apply a repellant before getting into bed, a lot of the material could rub off on the sheets etc. Also, bed bugs are most active between 3 and 5 am, which is several hours after the time you would have put the on the repellant to go to bed. Bottom line, a repellant may prevent you from getting a bite or two but I do not believe that they will significantly hinder a hungry bed bug.Bed bugs can get in your hair but the good news is that they really don’t want to be there. Unlike fleas and lice that have bodies or claws that are specifically designed for navigating through hair, the common bed bug does not have these modifications. In fact, bed bugs need to set their front claws in a particular position so that they can insert their mouthparts into the skin just so, in order to be in the proper feeding position. Hair on the human head would make this very difficult. They would much prefer to feed on the bare skin. If they encountered your head first, they would most likely move to your face (many people suffer face bites) or some other less hairy area to feed. If you are bald, well, the head is fair game.

On sleep sacks Question: Would the silk “sleep sacks” sold as a travel accessory be any help at all against bed bug bites at a hotel? –L Hart , Irvine, Calif.

Answer: Unlikely. Bed bugs can very probably feed directly through the weave of the “sleep sack.” Even if the bag were to offer some protection, the bed bugs could crawl to the opening of the sack and enter that way. The best defense is to inspect the bed (mattress and sheets) and the head board for signs of bed bugs. If you find any, report this to the management and request a different room.

On Lysol Question: When traveling I carry a can of Lysol spray and spray the bed with it. Is this helpful in getting rid of bed bugs? –Ennis, Tex.

Answer: The only way that Lysol spray could help you is if you sprayed the bugs directly. The alcohols and propellants would probably kill bed bugs if you wetted them down with the material. However, dried spray on or around the bed would have no effect.If you are traveling, always inspect your mattress for bed bugs by pulling back the covers and looking carefully at the seams and tufts for bed bugs or bed bug evidences (black fecal spots). If you find bed bug, don’t spray them yourself. This may cause them to move around and infest other areas. Instead, contact the hotel management inform them of the bugs and ask for another room immediately. Leave the spraying to a professional.

Answer: This is an excellent question. All pesticides that are labeled for use in the United States have to be registered by the EPA. To get an EPA registration, the pesticide product has to be thoroughly tested for acute and chronic effects on mammals (laboratory rats and dogs), the potential effects on birds, fish, and honeybees has to be documented, and the environmental fate (half-life) of these products in water or soil also must be quantified. The cost of having a product registered is now estimated to be around $ 100 million. This cost naturally limits the number of products that make it to the marketplace. In addition, there has been a 10 to 15 year trend in reducing the number of pesticide products that receive registration for use in the indoor environment. In short, it is very hard to get new pesticides registered that are labeled for indoor use (as opposed to agricultural use).
However, throughout this trend of limiting indoor pesticides, we were bed bug free. Like the EPA, many people have concerns about applying chemicals where children sleep or play. But, if bed bugs should become as big a problem as they were at the beginning of the 20th century, the public may demand that the federal government register products that are effective against bed bugs. We will just have to wait and see. At this time, we do not know of any product that is in development specifically for bed bug control.

Waking up with bed bugs Question: Why is it that I get bit but my husband does not? –Denise, Indian Trail, N.C.

Answer: Bed bugs tend to aggregate together when they are resting. It is possible that you are on the “bed bug side” of the bed. Bed bugs don’t switch back and forth from one host to another so if they find you first, you may be the only one bitten. It is also possible that your husband is getting bitten but does not have a significant reaction to the bed bug bites.

On where they bite Question: Will a bed bug ever bite a reproductive body part? –Tyler P., Brookfield, Conn.

Answer: Yes. They do not discriminate; any body part that is accessible and with good blood flow is fair game to a bed bug.

Bed bugs on cruise ships? Question: I’m getting ready to go on a cruise, should I be concerned about bed bugs there? –Debbie

Answer: Because we know that bed bugs are an increasing problem (some would call it an epidemic), it is prudent to inspect any location away from home where you are planning to sleep. Inspect your cabin thoroughly, looking for signs of bed bugs prior to unpacking. Look behind the head board if possible, and inspect your mattress. There is no need to tear the room apart, but a close look at the mattress seams and inside the cabin drawers prior to putting away your clothes should become part of your traveling routine. Editor’s note: Dateline did receive some e-mails with anecdotes from cruise ship goers who say they were bitten.

On treating bites Question: Once a person has been bitten by a bed bug, how does one treat it? Lotions? Creams? — Rachelle Berven, Denver, Colo.

Answer: First, do not scratch it. Just like mosquito bites, scratching makes the reaction much worse. Instead wash the area with warm soapy water and then apply an anti-itch cream (examples: Benadryl cream or Hydrocortisone cream).

Do kinds of beds matter? Question: Can you have bed bugs if you have a water bed? –E. Merlino, Rockville Centre, N.Y.

Answer: Absolutely, you can have bed bugs anywhere in a room (behind pictures hanging on the wall or in popcorn ceilings) because the attractant is not the bed itself but the warm blooded person that lays in it quietly for hours at a time. We have seen bed bugs in many types of beds: egg foam, sleeping bags, or stacks of cardboard on the floor. We have also seen them in a metal frame with a blanket over it, and even a balled up jacket in a corner that someone was using as a pillow. Basically, they can infest anything that people sleep on. I think the bed bugs might enjoy a water bed. Water bed frame typically have many nooks and crannies where bed bugs can hide and the heater would keep them quite comfortable.Question: Can bedbugs also live in visco-memory foam beds? I have read some claims online that say that the bedbugs cannot get into the foam beds. Answer: Remember that bed bugs get on mattresses and harbor and under the sheets in the seams and tufts. While they may not be able to get into the actual foam, it hardly matters. They can harbor on the foam, in the seams of the mattress cover or in the bed frame. Remember the mattress itself is not the bed bug attractant, the host that uses it is. So bed bugs do not have to live inside the mattress in order to feed on you at night. They might crawl down from the picture frame hanging above your bed or from some other location.

A similar question has to do with mattress covers, can they prevent bed bugs?

Answer: The answer is no. Bed bugs can still get on top of the mattress cover or harbor in the bed frame. The advantage of the mattress cover is that if you already have bed bugs, you can trap them inside the cover and they cannot bite through. If you don’t have bed bugs the cover saves you from having to throw out the mattress if you ever get bed bugs.

On trauma, psychological impact Question: My husband recently stayed at a very reputable hotel and was bitten by bed bugs, he has been so severely traumatized that he is not only having me wash the bedding and clothes everyday, he has to inspect the bed several times before he is okay to get in it. He also continues to wake up in the middle of the night throw back the covers and flip the light on just to make sure there are no bugs in the bed. He has even gone so far as to buy a pair of magnifying goggles with lights and an extra magnification lens just to be able to inspect our bed. This is driving me insane! What can I do to help him? He is not a man who is easily bothered or effected by things like this normally, but after his (one night)encounter with the bed bugs he is truly freaked out. I need help! –Lezlie H., Navarre, Fla.

Answer: One of the things that I tell everyone about bed bugs is DON’T FREAK OUT! Why? Because it does not effect the bed bugs one bit. Not a bit. They could care less, those self-centered little creatures.That being said, I understand that bed bugs can cause a lot of stress, and you can best help your husband by dealing with the problem calmly and systematically. Is your husband still experiencing bites? If not, it is quite possible that he did not bring any home. If he is experiencing bites, you should contact a pest control operator to inspect the room for bed bugs. If you are not sure if he is getting bitten, I suggest using bright white bedding (sheets and pillowcases) and using them on the bed for a week or more, so that you can more easily see blood spots (black specs) that might be left by feeding bed bugs. If after a week or more you do not see any signs of bed bugs, you can reassure your husband that he may have been fortunate and didn’t bring any home with him.

On elder care Question: I am writing from Ma. My mother lives in elderly housing and has been dealing with this for about a year now. For the longest time she had none and did all the precautions that she could, but finally they arrived at her apartment. They did the extermination and had to remove her sofa, luckily they did not make it to her bedroom. Right now she has none and was recently checked but she lives with everything in plastic bags and the fear that they will be back. The problem though is that they are not doing all the apartments as I feel they should. They do one at a time as they are found you could say. They wash the tenants clothes for them and exterminate. The problem though is that most of these tenant’s are elderly, some their vision is not the best and have no idea what to look for and unless something is said they don’t go in and always check. My question is how do I get the city to listen and take more affirmative action. I have talked to some employee’s but it is always the same thing, “ they are working on it” and of course my mother doesn’t want to say or do too much in fear of being shunned, embarrassed, or doesn’t want to cause waves as she says. Hopefully someone can tell me what more I can do to help her and the other tenants with this problem. Thank you for your time. –Joy B., Swansea, Mass.

Answer: Dealing with bed bugs in a “sensitive” environment is particularly difficult. First, I tend to agree with the management that pesticide applications have to be made on a case by case basis. Elderly people are known to be particularly sensitive to bronchial contaminants and applications of pesticide as a preventative measure may be more dangerous to these people than the bed bugs themselves. If pesticide is applied in an apartment that does not have bed bugs and someone gets sick, the apartment management could be in serious trouble. Currently, bed bug treatment is pesticide intensive with several products being used multiple times. Even so, these treatments may not be 100% successful. So how do we protect the elderly from bed bugs using as little pesticide as possible? The immediate answer is, do not simply rely on the apartment management or the pest control company to take care of the bed bug problem. You must play a role as well. Bed bugs are everyone’s problem, and you may have to be the monthly inspector for your mother if she cannot do it herself. Next, ask the apartment manager to put you in touch with the pest control company. Ask that company to give you, the apartment staff, and the tenants a training seminar in how to inspect for bed bugs. Most companies will gladly do this. They need all the help they can get. If the company won’t help you, call the health department and ask them if they would be willing to train the apartment staff and the tenants how to inspect for bed bugs. If the apartment staff is reluctant to put you in touch with the pest management company or refuses to attend the bed bug training, you can remind them about the bed bug lawsuits taking place all over the country and the bad press involved with these lawsuits. I believe that in the future the success of surviving a bed bug lawsuit will depend on whether or not a facility has a bed bug inspection policy in place. Give the apartment management the opportunity to act in good faith. They might think your bed bug training seminar is an excellent idea.

On city policies Question: Bed bugs have been found in my daughter’s “industrial loft” apartment in Brooklyn, NY. The landlord has treated one room at a time with insecticide spray and floor varnish, yet not all spaces in the apartment have been treated at the same time. Other apartments on the same floor have also been found to have bed bugs. Is there any remedy or effective treatment to rid the building of the bed bugs? Also, what can a person take to reduce the reaction to the bites? Does the county or city have an extermination policy for rental units? –Margaret S., Buffalo, N.Y.

Answer: At this time we are not very good at curing bed bug problems. There is no pesticide or application method that works 100 percent of the time. Depending on the clutter that may exist in each apartment, treatment can have variable success. Bed bugs are very tough and the more clutter there is, the easier it is for bed bugs to hide away from the treatment. Sanitation efforts on the part of the resident may need to be extreme to get good bed bug control. So bed bug management requires just as much cooperation from the occupants as from the management and pest control company. Actual treatment requires patience and persistence. Treatment usually requires multiple products being applied at least 3 times at 2 week intervals. So, bottom line: treating an entire building will require all tenants and management to join in a cooperative, ongoing to inspect for bed bugs on a regular basis and keep sanitation levels high so that bed bugs problems do not get established. Is this cooperation a possibility in your daughter’s loft?

Question: Is there any remedy or effective treatment to rid the building of the bed bugs?

Answer: Fumigation has been tried but with limited success and the cost is usually more than $20,000, a lot more.

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